Name: Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama is so revered in Japan that he kept it a secret that he has a wife and child
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Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama is so revered in Japan that he kept it a secret that he has a wife and child

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Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowOver 3 million people read ; you should too!Something is loading.Until Sunday, Hideki Matsuyama wasn't exactly a household name in much of the world. After his win at Augusta National, that changed quickly.Matsuyama&nbsp;became the on Sunday as he won the Masters Tournament, finishing the weekend 10 under par, one shot ahead of American debutant Will Zalatoris.After Matsuyama claimed his first green jacket, Tiger Woods said on Twitter that the victory would "Making Japan proud Hideki," said Woods, who missed the tournament due to injuries"Congratulations on such a huge accomplishment for you and your country. This historical @TheMasters win will impact the entire golf world."While Matsuyama was little known outside golfing circles in the US before last night, back home in Japan it is a totally different story.So famous is the 29-year-old in Japan that he previously hid the fact that he was married with children from the media.Born in 1992 on the Japanese island of Shikoku, Matsuyama began playing golf as early as 4, but it was during his time at boarding school and later university that his talent blossomed.&nbsp;After winning the 2010 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, Matsuyama competed in the 2011 Masters before turning professional. There he finished as the leading amateur, winning the Silver Cup in the process.He then turned pro in 2013, before a year later qualifying for the PGA Tour. He has since won six tournaments, including the 2014 Memorial Tournament, the 2017 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, and, of course,Such exploits on the golf course have made Matsuyama not only $33 million in prize money but also a major celebrity in his home country.&nbsp;Over the years, Matsuyama has been extremely private about his personal life. He revealed that he had a wife only when she gave birth to their first child in 2017. Matsuyama's wife is named Mei, according to the PGA Tour website."No one really asked me if I was married, so I didn't have to answer that question," Matsuyama said at the time, "I felt that after the PGA would be a good time because our baby is born, and I thought that would be a good time to let everyone know."Although Matsuyama said that he didn't discuss his wife because no one asked, ESPN's Wright Thompson wrote after the Masters win that it was likely kept a secret because of "Back home, Matsuyama is obsessed over to the degree that he and his wife kept both their marriage and the birth of their child from the rabid Japanese media,""Reporters write about every little thing, including, for instance, the weight Matsuyama has gained since moving to America. It's constant and oppressive but not a surprise."He carries an enormous burden as the best male Japanese golfer, because of the vital and complex importance the sport has carried in the country since the end of World War II."In 2014, the same year Matsuyama qualified for the PGA Tour, his father, Mikio, also made golf his career, buying the driving range at which his son used to practice as a child.Mikio renamed the range the Hideki Golf Garden."Since his childhood, he came here together with me," Mikio said at the time, per ESPN. "Clutching his club, practicing every day, and receiving the warm encouragements of the people he met there."He grew up passing through this place, and it's not an exaggeration to say that this is a place that raised Hideki. And so, my gratitude alone isn't enough to repay the people who have warmly cheered on Hideki since he was a child."From now on, in order to live up to the feelings of those people, I'm renewing my determination to promote golf and the growth of junior golfing however I can."After winning at Augusta on Sunday, Matsuyama paid homage to the next generation of golfers in Japan he is inspiring and his father is helping produce."It's thrilling to think that there are a lot of youngsters in Japan watching today, and in five, 10 years when they get a little older, hopefully some of them will be competing on a world stage, but I still have a lot of years left, so they're still going to have to compete against me," he said."But I'm happy for them and hopefully they'll be able to follow in my footsteps."Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know.Subscribe to push notificationsAn icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.Keep readingTwo crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowOver 3 million people read ; you should too!Something is loading.Until Sunday, Hideki Matsuyama wasn't exactly a household name in much of the world. After his win at Augusta National, that changed quickly.Matsuyama&nbsp;became the on Sunday as he won the Masters Tournament, finishing the weekend 10 under par, one shot ahead of American debutant Will Zalatoris.After Matsuyama claimed his...

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Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama is so revered in Japan that he kept it a secret that he has a wife and child

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